Since the decade of the nineteen eighties there has been a large volume of information reported on macromolecules, most specifically, the macromolecules that are dendritic in nature, and those that are hyperbranched.
Dendrimers are described as globular, nano-scale macromolecules consisting of two or more tree-like dendrons, emanating from a single central atom or atomic group called the core. They are comprised of branch cells that are the main building blocks of dendritic structures, that is, three-dimensional analogues of repeat units in classical linear polymers, that must contain at least one branch juncture, and that are organized in mathematically precise architectural arrangements, that give rise to a series of regular radially concentric layers, called generations (G) around the core. Dendrimers must contain at least three different types of branch cells including a core, interior cells, and surface or exterior cells.
Dendrons are the smallest constitutive elements of a dendrimer that have the same architectural arrangement as the dendrimer itself, but which emanate from a single trunk or branch, which may end with a potentially reactive, or a potentially inert functional group called by those skilled in this particular art, the focal group.
On the other hand, hyperbranched polymers are random highly branched macromolecules usually obtained from a “one-shot” polymerization reaction of an ABw type of monomer, that is nABw→- - - (ABw)n- - - , where A and B represent mutually reactive functional groups of the monomer. They are usually different from dendrons, in that, hyperbranched macromolecules are considerably more architecturally variable in their structure, have a lower degree of branching, and as materials, usually have a high degree of polydispersity, in that, not all hyperbranched macromolecules of the same hyperbranched polymer are of the same molecular weight or chain length.
A pictorial representation showing in detail the proposed architecture of these types of macromolecular structures can be found in Polymer Preprints, Division of Polymer Chemistry, American Chemical Society, Volume 39, Number 1, Pages 473 to 474, (March, 1998).
In addition, much of the detail of these polymers, their chemical reactions schemes, their combinations, and some of their intended and proposed uses can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,739,218 that issued to Dvornic, et al. on Apr. 14, 1998; U.S. Pat. No. 5,902,863 that issued to Dvornic, et al. on May 11, 1999; U.S. Pat. No. 5,938,934 that issued to Balogh on Aug. 17, 1999 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,077,500 that issued to Dvornic on Jun. 20, 2000, all of which are incorporated herein by reference for what they teach about the polymers and the methods by which they are made.
Dvornic, et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 5,902,863, U.S. Pat. No. 5,739,218, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,077,500 and Balogh, et al., teach the preparation of organosilicon macromolecules that are based on dendrimer networks that are prepared from radially layered polyamido-amine-organosilicon (PAMAMOS) or polypropyleneimine-organosilicon (PPIOS) dendrimer precursors. The silicon-containing networks have covalently bonded hydrophilic and hydrophobic nanoscopic domains whose size, shape, and relative distribution can be precisely controlled by the reagents and conditions disclosed therein. The PAMAMOS or PPIOS dendrimers can be cross linked into dendrimer-based networks by any number of different types of reactions. For example, Dvornic, et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 5,739,218 teaches hydrophilic dendrimers whose surface has been partially or completely derivatized with inert or functional organosilicon moieties.
Further, Dvornic, et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 6,077,500 teach reacting organosilicon compounds with macromolecules including a higher generation of radially layered copolymeric dendrimers having hydrophilic polyamidoamine or a hydrophilic polypropyleneimine interior and a hydrophobic organosilicon exterior. Balogh et al., teach dendritic polymer based networks that consist of hydrophilic and oleophobic domains.
The general applications for the materials of the above-mentioned patents are for coatings, sensors, sealants, insulators, conductors, absorbents, delivering active species to specific areas such as in catalyst use, drug therapy and gene therapy, personal care uses, and agricultural adjuvant products.
A more recent, somewhat related disclosure utilizing a polyamine as the base polymer can be found in Rosenberg, U.S. Pat. No. 5,695,882 that issued on Dec. 9, 1997 wherein there is disclosed a system for extracting soluble heavy metals from liquid solutions. The process makes use of an activated surface of an extraction material that is a reaction product of an unbranched polyamine with a covalently anchored trifunctional hydrocarbyl silyl that yields non-crosslinked amino groups to which functional chelator groups can be covalently attached. The activated surface of the extraction material is formed by first hydrating the extraction material surface and then silanizing the hydrated surface with a short chain trifunctional silane having a hydrocarbon substituent containing 1 to 6 carbon atoms and a terminal leaving group, and then reacting a polyamine with the hydrocarbysilyl from the silanization of the hydrated surface so as to form an aminohydrocarbyl polymer covalently bound to the extraction material surface. It should be noted that this material is non-crosslinked as is expressly stated therein by the patentees.
A second U.S. patent, namely, U.S. Pat. No. 5,997,748, that issued on Dec. 7, 1999 to Rosenberg and Pang, teaches essentially the same technology as is set forth in the earlier Rosenberg patent as this latter patent is a divisional application from the earlier patent.
What these references do not teach are the inventive compositions, processes for the preparation of the inventive compositions, and the applications for the use of the inventive compositions of this invention as described and claimed herein.